> Unless you got yourself into a situation where you were expected to set up a whole office with the same speed and expertise as a full-time network engineer based on some gross misrepresentation of your skillset, I don't see how this story is particularly relevant.

Taking a job as one of a business's "computer people" puts you in the path of a whole lot of interesting tasks, even if your main job is programming.

> Maybe it's a good cautionary tale about presuming that SoHo is the limit of networking?

It's certainly that, but I want to expand on this a bit: SoHo is the only stuff most people can play with. For example, I can make programs and package them in Docker containers and run them that way, but I don't know how I'd play with Kubernetes in a realistic fashion. There's whole genres of technology most people can't get realistic access to without some institutional support. It's an effective ceiling on some kinds of knowledge.

As far as learning how to learn, I agree with you. I think a lot of it comes down to vocabulary: Once you know the terms the experts use, you can bootstrap effectively and learn more terms and bootstrap even more effectively. Plus, words have a way of coming back to you at odd intervals, effectively dropping you hints when you see something you vaguely recognize.

Maybe we should all have Word Of The Day calendars.